Cathie Wood's ARK ETFs See Record Investor Rush

After years of outflows and underperformance, Cathie Wood’s ARK ETFs are burning hot, pulling in massive capital. The firm’s 13 U.S.-listed ETFs have gathered $3.7 billion in AUM over the past week, led by record-breaking single-day hauls.

The flagship ARK Innovation ETF ARKK led the charge, raking in a record $1.1 billion on Monday and an even larger $1.4 billion on Tuesday, which marks the biggest single-day inflows since 2021. ARK defines ‘‘disruptive innovation’’ as the introduction of a technologically enabled new product or service that potentially changes the way the world works. This was followed by ARK Next Generation Internet ETF ARKW, which saw its largest-ever single-day haul, with $349 million on Tuesday.

The massive surge in inflows has flipped ARK’s year-to-date tally from deep red to $2.6 billion in net inflows for 2025. ARKK accounted for $2.8 billion of last week’s surge, boosting its AUM to $8.6 billion, or 40% of ARK’s total. ARKW took in $707 million, bringing its asset base to $2.8 billion.

A Stunning Comeback From April Lows

ARKK has nearly doubled in three months from an April low of near $40, riding strong gains in holdings like Coinbase COIN, Roblox RBLX, Shopify SHOP, Palantir PLTR, Robinhood HOOD and Circle IPO. ARKW mirrored this rebound, now trading just 13% below its 2021 peak, compared to ARKK's 50% gap (read: ETFs to Ride on Palantir's First Billion-Dollar Quarter Revenues).

Return of Retail Fervor & “Disruptive” Innovation

The inflow surge is fueled in part by renewed retail enthusiasm for “meme” and high-volatility “cult” stocks, echoing the pandemic-era mania that initially catapulted ARK into the limelight. ARK’s active approach, which had struggled post-2021 due to ill-timed exits (like missing NVIDIA's AI surge), now appears better aligned with current innovation trends, contributing to renewed confidence.

Reallocations by Cathie Wood

Cathie Wood, the high-profile CEO of Ark Investment Management, remains especially bullish on the transformative power of emerging technologies. "During the current turbulent transition in the United States, she believes consumers and businesses will accelerate the shift toward innovation platforms, including artificial intelligence, robotics, energy storage, blockchain, and multiomics sequencing.”

As such, Cathie Wood is sticking to her trademark playbook — buying into high-growth tech names when volatility sends prices tumbling. This week, both ARKK and ARKW snapped up more than 725,000 shares of ad-tech leader Trade Desk TTD, after the stock plunged 38.6% on Friday following a disappointing earnings report, soft guidance and the surprise departure of its CFO. This is ARK’s first Trade Desk buy since February. With this purchase, TTD is now the 27th-largest holding in ARKK and the 29th-largest in ARKW, worth about $85 million and $28 million, respectively.

Wood also purchased about $19 million of Block shares across its ETFs, including ARKK and ARKW. This reflects a better entry point as the stock hit a three-week low, signaling renewed conviction in fintech. The firm also bought approximately 1.7 million shares of Bullish BLSH across ARKK and ARKW, reinforcing its bet on digital asset innovation.

These transactions underscore ARK's active, opportunistic strategy in high-growth sectors from fintech to crypto platforms.

Let’s take a closer look at the fundamentals of ARKK & ARKW.

ARKK 

ARK Innovation ETF is an actively managed fund investing in companies that benefit from the development of new products or services, technological improvements and advancements in scientific research related to the areas of DNA technologies and genomic revolution, automation, robotics, energy storage, artificial intelligence, next-generation Internet and Fintech innovation. In total, the fund holds 44 securities in its basket and charges 75 bps in fees per year from investors. It trades in an average daily volume of 12 million shares. 

ARKW

ARK Next Generation Internet ETF is an actively managed fund focusing on companies expected to benefit from the shift in technology infrastructure to the cloud, enabling mobile, new and local services that rely on or benefit from the increased use of shared technology, infrastructure and services, Internet-based products and services, new payment methods, big data, the Internet of Things, and social distribution and media. The fund holds 46 stocks in its basket. ARK Next Generation Internet ETF charges 82 bps in annual fees and trades in an average daily volume of 372,000 shares (read: 5 American ETFs Witnessing Gains Ahead of Independence Day). 
 

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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